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Darien Campo | Designer<\/span><\/p>\n On Jan. 8, the 2017 Golden Globes had a new guest in attendance from previous years.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As James Franco took the stage to accept his award for best actor, he brought with him Tommy Wiseau, the very man he is lauded for portraying in \u201cThe Disaster Artist.\u201d For most, Wiseau is an unrecognizable name. But to his legions of cult-like fans, seeing him onstage was a beautifully surreal experience.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 2003, Wiseau released his magnum opus \u201cThe Room,\u201d a film he wrote, directed, produced and starred in. During its two-week box office run it barely made $1,600 of its estimated $6 million budget back before it dropped from the big screen. But over the past 15 years \u201cThe Room\u201d has slowly built a sizeable, rabid fanbase to the point that it is now the subject of one of the year\u2019s most popular comedies.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Filmmaker Ross Morin famously called \u201cThe Room\u201d the \u201cCitizen Kane of bad movies.\u201d And that\u2019s what \u201cThe Room\u201d is known for \u2014 being a bad movie. But that label never really sat right with me. There are plenty of bad movies in the world, hundreds of them are released every year and you\u2019ll never even hear about them. Some flop tremendously and then burn out into obscurity. It feels weird to compare a \u201cbad\u201d film like \u201cThe Emoji Movie,\u201d which will most likely be forgotten in ten years; to \u201cThe Room,\u201d which continues to sell out theaters across the globe 15 years after its release. \u201cThe Emoji Movie\u201d is a bad film, but it\u2019s doubtful it will have any long-lasting cult appeal as \u201cThe Room\u201d does. So what sets Wiseau\u2019s film blunder apart from all the other \u201cbad\u201d movies that collect dust on Netflix year after year? To me, films like \u201cThe Room\u201d don\u2019t quite fit into the \u201cgood movie, bad movie\u201d dichotomy; there\u2019s something more here.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe Room\u201d is an inept film, for sure, but I think what helps it stand out above the rest is the passion behind it. I believe that \u201cbad\u201d movies like \u201cThe Room,\u201d \u201cTroll 2\u201d and \u201cPlan 9 From Outer Space\u201d stand out not solely because of their missteps, but because of the passion of the filmmakers behind them.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Passion is one of the most defining qualities that makes a film stand out. While \u201cThe Room\u201d famously stumbled on the delivery of nearly every single aspect of what we have come to expect from a movie, it is Wiseau\u2019s passion for his film that makes it worth watching.<\/span><\/p>\n If a \u201cgood movie\u201d is defined by its success, and a \u201cbad movie\u201d by its failure, then the continuing success of filmmakers like Wiseau makes no sense. I have a different metric I like to judge movies by: \u201cpassion vs. pander.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s a difficult quality to define, and perhaps can only be guessed at in retrospect. Did the filmmaker tell their story thinking \u201cpeople are going to love this idea,\u201d or were they thinking \u201cI<\/span> love this idea\u201d? It\u2019s not an easily quantifiable method of examining movies, but it has given me insight into my own work. Because of movies like Wiseau\u2019s, as I work on my own projects I am constantly asking myself \u201cAm I making this decision for myself, or for the audience?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We want to make work that is honest. Not only to others, but to ourselves. And for all of its failures, \u201cThe Room\u201d is one of the most honest films you will ever see. There\u2019s a wonderful freedom in watching a movie made with equal parts unbridled passion and outright blunder.<\/span><\/p>\n Filmmaker Ed Wood famously spent his whole career feverishly making movie after movie after movie, convinced he was destined to be a great filmmaker. His first film, \u201cGlen or Glenda,\u201d is an extremely personal tale about cross-dressing from a filmmaker who was one himself. It is a terrible movie, and the first in a long line of terrible movies; each made with equal love and passion as the one before it. His 1959 sci-fi horror \u201cPlan 9 From Outer Space\u201d is now one of the biggest cult films of all time. Ed Wood\u2019s passion gave life to a filmography full of lifeless duds.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is it fair of me to say that films like \u201cSuicide Squad\u201d are made with pandering and not passion? No, of course not. That\u2019s not my place. But I think it\u2019s a worthwhile discussion to have. A film like \u201cAssassin\u2019s Creed\u201d succeeds in most aspects technically, it is a competently-made film; but had an overwhelmingly lukewarm reception. \u201cThe Room\u201d fumbles nearly everything it tries to do as a film, but is now the subject of a hugely successful book and now film adaptation.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As an artist, there are worse things than making bad art. Bad art can still be successful, it can still speak volumes to an audience. What\u2019s most important is that you are honest in your art. Create with passion, create for yourself, and create without shame.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For insight into the type of people who make these terrible movies, I recommend Michael Stephenson\u2019s documentary \u201cBest Worst Movie.\u201d A film about the cast of \u201cTroll 2\u201d as one by one they learn that their film flop from 20 years earlier has become a cult hit. Tim Burton\u2019s \u201cEd Wood\u201d and now James Franco\u2019s \u201cThe Disaster Artist\u201d explore these B-movie heroes as well.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe Room\u201d will be forever remembered as a bad movie, but there\u2019s nothing wrong with failure. For me, I\u2019d rather fail spectacularly than make something that\u2019s just \u201calright.\u201d Look through last year\u2019s 5-star rated films sometime, you\u2019ll be amazed how many you\u2019ve already forgotten ever existed. Sometimes a one-star rating can be just as good as a 10.<\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at dcampo13@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n Photo by: The New Yorker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Darien Campo | Designer On Jan. 8, the 2017 Golden Globes had a new guest in attendance from previous years. As James Franco took the stage to accept his award for best actor, he brought with him Tommy Wiseau, the very man he is lauded for portraying in \u201cThe Disaster Artist.\u201d For most, Wiseau […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}